The concept of energy sovereignty redefines the priorities for decision making regarding energy systems while encouraging increased reliance on renewable energy technologies like solar. Energy sovereignty involves centering the inherent right of humans and communities to make decisions about the energy systems they use, including decisions about the sources, scales, and forms of ownership that structure energy access. Current U.S energy policy does not center concerns of energy sovereignty, and in many cases may work against it. Policies to enhance energy sovereignty can accelerate electricity decarbonization while also empowering community scale decision making and offering communities control to reduce the myriad externalities associated with the fossil-fuel energy system. Energy policy designed based on the concept of energy sovereignty would prioritize community voices in energy system decision making, ensuring that communities are given an opportunity to express their right to self-determined sovereignty in energy systems transitions and energy system use. Energy sovereignty is an inherently place-based practice, and policy tools that center energy sovereignty would enhance community capacity to plan for transitions while embracing considerations of the health and wellbeing of communities, both human and non-human, now and in the future. The policy tools most effective for enhancing energy sovereignty may not yet exist, but they are essential for promoting a just energy transition that benefits all communities based on their own understanding of energy transition priorities and values.
Tag Archive for: Solar
Driven by climate change and economics, energy generation is undergoing a necessary and rapid transformation towards non-emitting renewable energy, especially solar and wind. As the world decarbonizes, the energy grid will become distributed, characterized by increased local control and decreased transmission losses. The future grid also provides extensive energy security, local employment, and local risk reduction, if coupled with battery storage. Photovoltaics (PV), the direct production of electrical energy by photovoltaic cells, stand out as a key component in the required transition for social and economic reasons: scalability, safety, rapid deployment, longevity, reliability, resilience, and minimal emissions. In the last decade, the cost of solar has decreased precipitously and reached grid parity (costing the same or less than electricity from conventional sources) for most of the world in 2015. In 2019, unsubsidized residential solar was less expensive than most rates charged by utilities, while industrial solar-plus-storage produced electricity at rates that outcompeted all other means of electricity generation. Both residential and industrial solar have a miniscule carbon footprint, as compared with fossil fuels. Since globally 64% of electricity is generated through the combustion of fossil fuels, the potential to decarbonize through solar and wind is not only enormous, but is a societal imperative. Decarbonization of electrical generation becomes even more essential considering the adoption of heat pumps, electric vehicles, and other electrification initiatives. As shown by Jacobson et al. (2019), using just wind, water, and solar, almost complete decarbonization of energy is achievable before 2050. In this period of multiple crises, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer a framework to understand and address global issues concurrently. The framework also ensures that tackling one goal does not incidentally hinder or reverse achievement of the others. Community owned solar, especially with added storage, contributes to climate change action, pollution reduction, and energy security, while reducing the relatively high energy burden for low income households. Before addressing avenues to and challenges of community solar, it is necessary to briefly summarize the many benefits of PV, separating societal benefits from benefits to an existing electrical grid. Given the stark reality of less than 10 years remaining to achieve the SDGs (United Nations 2015), community solar provides a readily available and economically viable solution to multiple SDGs. It targets the elusive middle ground in scale between residential and industrial solar and can deliver electricity competitively and at scale without requiring massive investment in supporting infrastructure. Most importantly, community solar provides more than just affordable and clean energy by democratizing the renewable energy transition. By giving power to the people, communities can utilize community solar programs in providing decent work, reducing inequalities, and increasing local resilience – while making a positive climate impact.
Community shared solar is a new and growing model for broadening local solar markets and extending the benefits of solar energy to new customers. By expanding access to solar energy, community shared solar can be a useful tool for San Francisco and other jurisdictions that seek to expand use of distributed, local solar power. To help educate stakeholders, including other Rooftop Solar Challenge partners and other cities, this paper discusses: (1) the basics of community shared solar; (2) the benefits of community shared solar; (3) variations in design of community shared solar programs; (4) examples of community shared solar program; (5) California’s regulatory context; and (6) community shared solar’s potential to expand San Francisco’s solar market. Community shared solar could also improve San Francisco’s solar market by enabling more San Francisco residents and businesses to invest in solar energy. The majority of San Francisco residents live in multi-family buildings, rent, or both: two-thirds of residential units are in multi-family buildings and 60% of San Francisco households rent. Community shared solar would allow renters and others who cannot install solar onsite to purchase solar energy for their home or business.
This guide is designed as a resource for those who want to develop community solar projects, from community organizers or solar energy advocates to government officials or utility managers. By exploring the range of incentives and policies while providing examples of operational community solar projects, this guide will help communities to plan and implement successful local energy projects. In addition, by highlighting some of the policy best practices, this guide suggests changes in the regulatory landscape that could significantly boost community solar installations across the country. The information in this guide is organized around three sponsorship models: utility-sponsored projects, projects sponsored by special purpose entities – businesses formed for the purpose of producing community solar power, and non-profit sponsored projects. The guide addresses issues common to all project models, as well as issues unique to each model. This guide focuses on projects designed to increase access to solar energy and to reduce up-front costs for participants. The secondary goals met by many Community Solar projects include: Improved economies of scale, Optimal project siting, Increased public understanding of solar energy, Generation of local jobs, Opportunity to test new models of marketing, project financing and service delivery.
This manual covers the business models or pathways through which electric cooperatives can deploy utility-scale solar PV installations to meet their renewable energy goals. In this report, they define utility-scale solar PV installations for the electric cooperative sector as being 1 MW or larger—to account for the interest they have witnessed in the sector as well as the smaller scale of operations of cooperative utilities. However, the analysis and discussion presented in this manual, as well as the models used herein, apply to installations as small as 0.25 MW. Electric cooperatives’ interest in solar energy has risen in recent years. Although not-for-profit co-ops are not typically eligible for tax benefits, they often seek a “taxable partner” for solar and wind projects, either through a power-purchase-agreement or through a shared ownership model, such as a tax-equity flip or a tax-lease-buyback project. The ITC extension reduces pressure for planners to implement solar projects in 2016 and allows for more careful planning. This is especially important for co-ops that are planning community solar projects, because it allows them to pursue a multi-year plan and avoid trying to cram everything into 2016. Solar costs are expected to continue falling as the technology and the industry continue to mature. The steep rate of cost savings seen in recent years will likely slow, however. Solar Power Purchase Agreements utilizing various tax incentives have already fallen under $60 per MWh in many parts of the US—and below $40 per MWh in some areas. With the continued cost reduction, more parts of the country will start to see prices for large scale projects in the $50 to $60 per MWh range. When combined with falling costs and industry maturity of large scale energy storage, this may open opportunities for investment in carbon-free generation technologies as replacement for more traditional sources of energy, especially peaking plants. The new law will also provide a measure of stability for the development of wind projects over the next four years. Both wind and solar will play an important role in developing state implementation plans to meet the 2015 EPA Clean Power Plan.
Modifications to the surface albedo through the deployment of cool roofs and pavements (reflective materials) and photovoltaic arrays (low reflection) have the potential to change radiative forcing, surface temperatures, and regional weather patterns. In this work we investigate the regional climate and radiative effects of modifying surface albedo to mimic massive deployment of cool surfaces (roofs and pavements) and, separately, photovoltaic arrays across the United States. The researchers use a fully coupled regional climate model, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, to investigate feedbacks between surface albedo changes, surface temperature, precipitation and average cloud cover. With the adoption of cool roofs and pavements, domain-wide annual average outgoing radiation increased by 0.16 ± 0.03 W m−2 (mean ± 95% C.I.) and afternoon summertime temperature in urban locations was reduced by 0.11–0.53 ◦C, although some urban areas showed no statistically significant temperature changes. In response to increased urban albedo, some rural locations showed summer afternoon temperature increases of up to +0.27 ◦C and these regions were correlated with less cloud cover and lower precipitation. The emissions offset obtained by this increase in outgoing radiation is calculated to be 3.3 ± 0.5 Gt CO2 (mean ± 95% C.I.). The hypothetical solar arrays were designed to be able to produce one terawatt of peak energy and were located in the Mojave Desert of California. To simulate the arrays, the desert surface albedo was darkened, causing local afternoon temperature increases of up to +0.4 ◦C. Due to the solar arrays, local and regional wind patterns within a 300 km radius were affected. Statistically significant but lower magnitude changes to temperature and radiation could be seen across the domain due to the introduction of the solar arrays. The addition of photovoltaic arrays caused no significant change to summertime outgoing radiation when averaged over the full domain, as interannual variation across the continent obscured more consistent local forcing.
While solar facilities are a viable source of clean energy with many economic opportunities available to developers, landowners, and local communities, their recent deployment has led to a growing recognition of potential land use conflicts. The declining technology costs, tax breaks, financial incentives, and affordability of rural lands have been the main drivers of the recent development of solar facilities across Virginia. However, as these facilities grow larger and more prevalent, they will become an increasingly important component of local land use patterns in many parts of rural Virginia. Accordingly, proper land use planning serves a critical role in ensuring that Virginia successfully meets future clean energy goals while also promoting sustainable and efficient land use practices. Analyzing the ongoing land use impacts of utility-scale solar development, establishing a process for tracking future land use patterns, and providing guidance to consider the best land use practices is the primary purpose of this plan. The goal of this plan is not to undermine the opportunity and potential of solar energy. Instead, this plan seeks to inform solar energy development policies through a land use planning perspective to promote the sustainable development of solar facilities. The recommendations of this plan are intended for the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy and are informed by the results of this research. However, the findings and recommendations for this plan are also informative and useful for a variety of stakeholders. The sustainable development of solar energy facilities in Virginia will ultimately be a collaborative process and the following recommendations are intended to complement the ongoing work of numerous stakeholders across the state.
Wisconsin utilities are partnering with companies that want to develop more clean energy at scale, and support win-win solar development with a voluntary pollinator-friendly standard that will enable bees, birds, and soil to thrive where solar development sprouts up. RENEW Wisconsin answers some common questions about Wisconsin’s evolving solar energy landscape such as existing and developing utility solar arrays, land use, zoning, and benefits to local landowners and governments.
Berkeley Lab’s annual Utility-Scale Solar report presents trends in deployment, technology, capital expenditures (CapEx), operating expenses (OpEx), capacity factors, the levelized cost of solar energy (LCOE), power purchase agreement (PPA) prices, and wholesale market value among the fleet of utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) systems in the United States (where “utility-scale” is defined as any ground-mounted project larger than 5 MWAC). This summary briefing highlights key trends from the latest edition of the report, covering data on projects built through year-end 2020. Median installed project costs have steadily fallen by nearly 75% (averaging 12% annually) since 2010, to $1.4/WAC ($1.1/WDC) among 68 utility-scale PV plants (totaling 5.1 GWAC) completed in 2020 (Figure 3). Costs were lowest in the Southeast ($1.2/WAC or $0.9/WDC) and highest in CAISO. Projects that use single-axis tracking have slightly higher up-front costs than fixed-tilt projects, but the difference has narrowed over time, particularly since 2015. Looking ahead, the amount of utility-scale solar—and solar+storage—capacity in the development pipeline suggests continued momentum and a significant expansion of the industry in future years. At the end of 2020, there were at least 460 GW of utility-scale solar power capacity within the interconnection queues across the nation, 170 GW of which first entered the queues in 2020. Nearly 160 GW of the 460 GW total (i.e., 34% of all solar in the queues) include batteries. Solar (both standalone and in hybrid form, including batteries) is by far the largest resource within these queues, roughly equal to the amount of wind, storage, and natural gas combined. The growth of solar within these queues is widely distributed across almost all regions of the country, with PJM and the non-ISO West leading the way with nearly 90 GWAC each, followed by ERCOT, MISO, and the non-ISO Southeast, each with ~60 GWAC. Nearly 90% of the solar capacity in CAISO’s queue at the end of 2020 was paired with a battery; in the non-ISO West, that number is also relatively high, at 67%. Though not all of these projects will ultimately be built as planned (i.e., entering the queues is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for development success), the ongoing influx and widening geographic distribution of both standalone solar and solar+storage projects within these queues is as clear of an indication as any of the accelerating energy transition and the major role that the utility-scale PV sector will continue to play in the years to come.
Empirical Trends in Deployment, Technology, Cost, Performance, PPA Pricing, and Value in the United States.
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